Author: Nino Mohammad

Angel Of The Battlefield 1821

Humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross. Barton, born in Massachusetts in 1821, worked with the sick and wounded during the American Civil War and became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” for her tireless dedication.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned her to search for lost prisoners of war, and with the extensive records she had compiled during the war she succeeded in identifying thousands of the Union dead at the Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp. She was in Europe in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and she went behind the German lines to work for the International Red Cross. In 1873, she returned to the United States, and four years later she organized an American branch of the International Red Cross. The American Red Cross received its first U.S. federal charter in 1900. Barton headed the organization into her 80s and died in 1912.

Koko The Gorilla

The Gorilla Foundation announced the passing of their beloved Koko on Tuesday, June 19th, 2018 at the age of 46. Throughout her life, Koko’s abilities made international headlines. She was chosen as an infant to work on a language research project with psychologist Francine “Penny” Patterson, and was coined the famous “sign language talking Gorilla.” In 2001, Koko made a fast friend in comedian Robin Williams. Years later, in 2014, Koko was one of many who mourned Williams’ passing. Koko amazed scientists in 2012, when she showed she could learn to play the recorder. That alone revealed mental perspicacity but also that primates could learn to control their breathing — something that had been assumed to be beyond their abilities. Her ability to interact with people made Koko an international celebrity. But she also revealed the depth and strength of a gorilla’s emotional life, sharing moments of glee and sadness with researchers. Rest in Peace, Koko.

City Of Volubilis Morocco

Throwback travel thursday takes us to Roman ruins located in Morocco. It’s the city of Volubilis, first built in 3rd century BC. Roman rule supercharged the city’s expansion and it grew to cover roughly 100 acres during the 1st century. The city was one of Rome’s most remote outposts and Roman control over the city only lasted until around 280 AD as local tribes took over. It was inhabited by many other groups though the centuries but by the 11th century was essentially abandoned. In 1997 it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and now many come to marvel at the preserved ruins that remain.

Wallenda Grand Canyon

5 years ago, aerialist Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk a high wire across the Little Colorado River Gorge near Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. It was the highest walk of his career, and he completed it in just less than 23 minutes. Wallenda made the quarter-mile traverse on a 2-inch-thick steel cable some 1,500 feet above the gorge… without a safety harness! In June of the previous year, Wallenda, a member of the famous Flying Wallendas family of circus performers, also became the first person to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Nik Wallenda made his professional debut as an aerialist at age 13. He went on to set a number of Guinness World Records, including the longest tightrope crossing on a bicycle and the highest eight-person tightrope pyramid. In 2011, Wallenda he and his mother successfully completed the high-wire walk in Puerto Rico that had killed his great grandfather Karl Wallenda.

History Iwo Jima Flag

When six U.S. Marines raised a flag over Iwo Jima in February 1945, they were laying claim to the slopes of a mountain, part of a strategically important chain of volcanic islands south of Tokyo. The Ogasawara Islands, also known as the Bonin Islands, were largely uninhabited. But during World War II, they offered a place where the invasion of Japan could be staged. The islands themselves weren’t empty—they were home to thousands of Japanese people, many of them with British and American ancestry. And, the American victory turned most of them into refugees over the next 23 years of U.S. occupation. In 1962, the United State abruptly gave the islands back to Japan. As the islands once again fell under Japanese control, islanders reconnected with their long-lost friends and family members and refugees returned. Even years after the handover, some Ogasawara residents are ambivalent about the change. “There are people who are very sad about the handover,” Yoko Tahashi, who lives in Chichijima, told the Japan Times’ David McNeill. “They don’t think of themselves as either Japanese or American, and feel that they have been cast aside. I feel sympathy for both sides.”

Blind Pig Detroit 1967

On This Day in History 1967, the Detroit Riots began following an early morning police raid on a “blind pig,” or an illegal after-hours club.  What happened first is hard to say but police and demonstrators clashed in one of the most violent and destructive riots in U.S. history. Only the New York Draft Riots of 1863 and the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 caused more destruction. After five days of fire and bloodshed, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned and some 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops had been called into service in the city. In the aftermath of the Newark and Detroit riots, President Johnson appointed a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission. Seven months after the Detroit Riots had ended, the commission released its 426-page report. Ominously, the report declared that “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer’s disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.” However, the authors also found cause for hope: “This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed.” Additionally, the report stated that “What the rioters appeared to be seeking was fuller participation in the social order and the material benefits enjoyed by the majority of American citizens. Rather than rejecting the American system, they were anxious to obtain a place for themselves in it.”